Office Romances
by Aralus
Summary: Sten is a proud Qunari. Never has he faltered from his faith and he never will. Well, that was what he believed before he met the Warden. Between the Templar's fumbling attempts at romancing her and the Assassin's lewd implications, the Qunari has come to realize that it is not only the Warden's strength that he admires. Rated M for late smut and language, though it's mostly mine.
1. Chapter 1

**Diclaimer**: I do not own any of the Dragon Age Origins characters, no matter how much I wish I did. T^T

**A/N**: Okay out of the fucking blue this obsession came up. I've played the Dragon Age series a thousand times over and have always loved the companion _Sten_ from the first one. It's always been sort of platonic though. But then I kinda saw him naked-ish and was like _whoa. _Anyway, I was sitting on my couch playing the game and he called the Warden "Kadan". I always assumed the things he called you meant something along the lines of "leader" or "boss" or "friend" or something. No. _Kadan_ is the cutest fucking term of endearment that I have ever heard coming from someone like him. The term Kadan roughly means "where the heart lies" or "one I care about". Holy shit you would not believe the amazing fangirl squeal that came from me when I discovered this. I almost had an aneurysm.

Anyway, I decided that I would write a Sten/ Warden fanfic the moment I accepted him as a love interest in the game. I try as hard as I can to follow my "no describing the main character for games where you can customize them" rule, but I couldn't do it in this one. I really couldn't, sorry. This is really just a chronicle of what happens between them in the first game in the form of short drabbles.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it~~~

~Love, Ara

**Chapter 1**

The Qunari watched the Warden with a growing sense of frustration. She appeared to be a woman and he did not understand this. There she sat next to the other Baas, cleaning the caked on dirt and blood off of her silverite chainmail. She looked just as feral on the battlefield as any other warrior, yet she was distinctly female. The elf's body was very definitely female, her body's curves were in the right places to form a soft hourglass shape. The young woman smiled brilliantly at a jest that the Bas Saarebas made at the Templar's expense, and the smile infuriated him. She was inherently attractive, everything about her seemed to fit the human idea of beauty, and yet she squandered it away underneath chainmail armor.

He watched her cross her legs, her bare feet digging themselves into the grass. It wasn't often that they were all seated around the fire and the Warden seemed to enjoy it. When she fixed her linen top she drew all of the attention from the men in the group and he lost it. He stalked away to think on her position as a Warden. She was a female, yet she fought. It made no sense.

The Qunari held his hands behind his back and closed his eyes, breathing deeply, retreating into his core. It wasn't until he heard her breathing that he turned around. The elf was looking up at him in a mixture of confusion. He never really understood why she tried so hard to get him to partake in the group's recreation. Rather than ask him anything, the elf remained quiet, waiting for him to speak first. "I do not understand," he stated, folding his arms across his chest, "You appear to be a woman."

"Are you flirting with me, Sten?," the Warden asked.

Sten's curiosity was piqued when the Warden's face flushed as she said that. What did that word mean? Flirting? Why would it cause the woman to blush like that when she said this? And why did he find the face she make so attractive when her flushed face look up at him, her wide blue eyes shining. "I do not understand this word "flirting" speak the common tongue," he muttered, ignoring the strange urge to touch her. "You are a woman, so it stands to reason that you cannot be a Grey Warden."

The blush faded slightly, but it was still there. "I don't follow, Sten," the girl looked slightly amused as she said this, her hand lightly resting on the hilt of her silverite long sword. It said something to her nature that she was never unarmed. He'd studied her. She never disarmed herself when she walked into camp, and she always slept with at least three blades close to her bed. It was that way in Seheron as well.

"Women are artisans, shopkeepers, and priests. They cannot be warriors," he reasoned, watching the look in her eyes flip over to a more thoughtful one.

She smiled, "That is not a universal truth, Sten."

"Why do they wish to be men? I do not understand!"

"They do not wish to be men. They wish to be women that fight."

"Do they wish to live on the moon as well? That's as attainable."

"I'm a woman and I'm fighting," the Warden smiled, surprisingly nonchalant for someone who'd just had their gender questioned.

"Only one of those is certain," he said, crossing his arms.

It was silent between them for a moment, the Warden looking slightly confused. The only sounds were coming from the group around the fire and the crackling of the fire itself. As if there'd never been a pause, the Warden laughed. Softly at first, then louder. She bent over and pressed her hand against her leg to keep her up. He watched as she shook her head, a look of pure mirth on her lovely face. He had… not just thought that. She touched his arm and patted gently, still chuckling. Then she looked up and their eyes met. There was a look in those beautiful blue orbs that he'd never seen before and her face flushed again. Her full lips parted slightly, short breaths coming out. He wasn't sure how, but they suddenly seemed impossibly closer.

"L-," there was a loud crash coming from the campfire, interrupting Sten. Alistair had tripped and fallen on the Bas Saarebas and she had thrown him off of her with her magic. When the two looked back at each other, the air between them had settled. "What-," he tried to ask but she just smiled and shook her head.

"Come now, Sten, Bartrand says that he found a bakery with all sorts of cookies! He brought quite a few back for all of us. The cinnamon chip ones are _divine_," she took hold of his shirt sleeve and gently tugged him back to the fire.

Sten glanced at the Warden when they took their seats. She seemed intent on forgetting what had just happened. No one seemed to notice it, but her hands were moving a bit erratically and she kept pushing her glistening white hair behind her pointed ears. There were a few piercings in the shaped cartilage, a thin chain connecting each of them. He lifted his hand a few inches off of his lap to touch her face, but dropped it back down unceremoniously. Beautiful though she was, it would only lead him away from the path of aqun.

**A/N:** *claps hands together* So, that was item one. I'm not quite sure that I'm happy with it, but I hope I will be by the time I'm done with it all. I'm getting all my translations from wiki/Qunlat. I know that I shouldn't believe everything that I read on the internet, but I know that quite a few of them are correct or at least they are very accurate rough translations. My OTP makes me stupid sometimes.

Oh! I found the single most amazing picture here  art/dragon-age-warden-and-sten-romance-345255194. You have to check his crap out, I'm so happy I found him.

Anyway, that's it for this chapter. I know, long A/N but I swear I'll talk less in the next ones since I really don't have to say much of anything. I hope you liked it, leave a review!

Love

~Ara ;o


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** Unfortunately I do NOT own any of the characters or rights to the _Dragon Age_ series.

**A/N:** Another one? It didn't take me a year to upload again? Strange. I swear I'm working on this. Anyway, this is yet another piece of the "chronicle" of the relationship between the Warden and Sten. Will you ever find out her first name, I wonder? I don't know. They tend to do what they want. This one is a little different from how it actually happened because I don't exactly remember the conversations. So, please don't judge.

Enjoy~~

**Chapter 2**

They had stopped by a river for a moment to rest and recuperate, more for the benefit of the Templar. Sten and the Warden had spent their entire lives trekking through the rough terrain of forests; their bodies were used to the stress of traveling with minimal rest. But the Templar's wasn't. Sten would never understand why she coddled him so. The Bas Saarebas called Wynne had said that the Warden and Alistair had something special, but that was not the story the unfolded before the Qunari's eyes. The Warden seemed flattered, but unimpressed by the Templar's advances.

"You never did tell me what you were doing in that cage, Sten," the Warden stated, plopping down on the ground next to him. She was cleaning her blade, again. Every time they stopped, she paused to make sure everything was in order. She offered him her leather canteen amiably and pulled her bread out to share as well.

He took the offered food and nodded gratefully. "Sitting, as you observed," he ripped a part of the bread off and took a cut of the cheese that was now being passed around.

"Very funny," the Warden chuckled gently. She bumped him softly, taking a small bite from her bread.

To say that he was shocked was an understatement. Most humans were unable to recognize when he was making a jest. They always assumed that he was serious. "Thank you."

There was a small blush that erupted on her cheeks again, but this time she looked down at the ground like it had offended her. "Seriously. Why were you in the cage?," the Warden's voice was wrought with her curiosity, a slightly worried look in her eye. Despite his protests when he was recruited, the Warden had made sure that he was completely healthy. She would never admit it, but he could see that she was worried.

"I put myself there. A weak mind is a strong foe."

Confusion passed her face and she chewed on her bottom lip, thinking for a moment. It was an endearing look on her, she looked so innocent. This called to something in him, the animal that was in all Qunari. "What exactly do you mean by a weak mind?," she asked, her voice pulling him out of his thoughts.

"It is quite the story. Are you sure you wish to hear it?," he asked, standing to face her.

Sten was pleased by the moment she took to consider what she was going to say. The Warden was a smart young woman and was nothing, if not reasonable. "Judging by the way Alistair is limping around, I say we have plenty of time before we can move," she nodded, leaning back against a large rock.

Sten nodded lightly and leaned against the rock next to her to tell his story. He was sent with his beresaad to answer the Arishok's question. They were attacked by darkspawn, and during the battle he was rendered unconscious. When he awoke, his comrades were dead and his sword, Asala, was gone. Out of panic from losing his sword, he murdered the farming family who had rescued him. Once he fully came to his senses, he realized that because of what crimes he had committed. He had lost his honor and so he chose to remain to seek penance for his crime. Days later he was arrested by Templars and brought to Lothering, where the Revered Mother sentenced him to die in the cage.

"That sounds like what happened to me at Ostagar," the Warden said, picking at the bread and throwing it to the birds. "Did you believe the farmers?," she asked, her legs crossing as much as her drakeskin armor would allow.

"I did. They had no reason to lie to me."

"Then you must have dropped it on the battle field when you were struck down," she reasoned, surprisingly stoically.

The Qunari's brow furrowed. While it was true that this bas lived in a different culture than the other Fereldens, he had not expected her to be so nonchalant about this sort of thing. "I murdered an entire family of bas and you seemed unfazed by this," he noted.

The Warden smiled and chuckled, "I've seen this before. Some of our hunters are found after a bear attack. Their bodies shut down so as to preserve energy. Until they are healed, they are held in a comatose state, suspended in time. They have no idea that any time has passed. When they awake, they believe that they are still battling whatever animal felled them. It is not unusual for them to attack their healer."

"You know quite a bit about the medicinal practice to be a hunter."

"My guardian was a healer. Before I was old enough to hunt I spent time with her, helping in what little ways I could," she shrugged, "Now, why did you panic so badly when you found your weapon missing?"

"My blade was made for my hands alone. Without it I cannot return. Were I to return without it I would be killed on-sight. No Qunari would allow his blade to be taken while he was still breathing."

The Warden's head was slightly cocked, like she was thinking, "Well… Where did you face the darkspawn?"

"By an inn on Lake Calenhad."

"Don't worry, Sten, we'll find it," she whispered with an assuring little smile, patting his arm as she stood.

Sten stared down at the elven girl. Her beautiful face was shining up at him for a moment and there was that tension again. The air between them had become almost tangible. Her cheeks were flushed again, and her lips parted. This time, his hand brought itself up, his thumb and forefinger finding her chin and bringing it up. Her wide eyes were staring at his lips, a shining in them that he had not seen directed at him before. "L-,"

Once again, whatever tension was there had been loss when Alistair had stumbled around the corner. The elven woman quickly stepped away and bent down to pick her pack up. She was still blushing when she picked her cloak up and drew the hood. It was wintertime in the Brecilian forest and her armor provided little protection from the cold wind. The dark black cloak augmented her sneak skills, allowing her to come up behind her targets better, so she was not wearing it merely because she was cold. It was ridiculous, how cold he felt when she had moved away. He was Sten of the Beresaad, not some pining Ferelden schoolchild.

Still… He watched her cloaked form walk away wearily. He would slay the archdemon with his bare-hands to hold her again.

The Warden stared down at her gloved hands. She had not felt such an intense passion since Tamlen had… Well, she hadn't experienced such a thing since she was an apprentice. She stole a glance at the Qunari who was playing fetch with Aedan. What was it about him that set her off? His red eyes met hers for a moment and she turned her head, pointing down a path. "This way. I spotted werewolf tracks leading down this path," she ignored the slight groan from Alistair and trekked forward. She couldn't think about this now. She had to get to this Witherfang person.

**A/N:** Why the hell is Alistair so clumsy? Let them have their moment! It's like Sten is trying to say her name, but he always gets interrupted. :3

Hate it? Like it? Hate me for fucking what was said up so bad? Well, too bad. Still, I would love some criticism. These are just little things I jotted down when I wasn't paying attention in class, so they aren't too comprehensive. I may go back through and add more detail and crap later when I have the time. I'm still getting my Qunari phrases from here ( wiki/Qunlat ). I will start using more Elvhen terms when I'm going to do her perspective.

I really hope you liked it. 3

Love,

Ara ;o


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